Review Tuesday: KINDLE FIRE

I've now had my KINDLE FIRE for nearly nine months and I thought this would be a good time to write a follow up review based on the use and abuse I have been putting it through since I got it last Christmas from the lovely and generous Mrs. Bax0jayz.

At the time the Kindle Fire came out, 7" Android tablets came wide and varied. Either they were expensive, useless toys, or cheap pieces of junk. No one had anything to rival the iPad. Not even close. Then, out from nowhere, Amazon gave it's Kindle a shot in the arm. It was no longer a boring black and white screened e-reader, it was a sophisticated tablet. The operating is Android based, but since there's a rift between Google and Amazon, you can't find anything about Android on the machine. You can't even get Chrome for the Kindle Fire! But the wifi is fast and works well. The Silk browser is fairly smooth, but not great. I have gotten it to crash and hang up quite a bit.

Technical Details

• Display: 7" multi-touch display with IPS (in-plane switching) technology and anti-reflective treatment, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors.
• Size (in inches) 7.5" x 4.7" x 0.45" (190 mm x 120 mm x 11.4 mm).
• Weight 14.6 ounces (413 grams).
• System Requirements: None, because it's wireless and doesn't require a computer.
• On-device Storage: 8GB internal (approximately 6GB available for user content). That's enough for 80 apps, plus 10 movies or 800 songs or 6,000 books.
• Cloud Storage: Free cloud storage for all Amazon content
• Battery Life Up to 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless off. Battery life will vary based on wireless usage, such as web browsing and downloading content.
• Charge Time: Fully charges in approximately 4 hours via included U.S. power adapter. Also supports charging from your computer via USB.
• Wi-Fi Connectivity: Supports public and private Wi-Fi networks or hotspots that use 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, or enterprise networks with support for WEP, WPA and WPA2 security using password authentication; does not support connecting to ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) Wi-Fi networks.
• USB Port USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)
• Audio: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, top-mounted stereo speakers.
• Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8.
• Documentation: Quick Start Guide (included in box); Kindle Fire User's Guide (pre-installed on device). Additional information available online.
• Warranty and Service: 1-year limited warranty and service included. Optional 2-year Extended Warranty available for U.S. customers sold separately.
• Included in the Box: Kindle Fire device, U.S. power adapter (supports 100-240V), and Quick Start Guide.

What makes it great

The kindle fire does about anything you need and it's COMPACT. You can see above that it has a considerable about of memory for your books, docs, and apps. It can read pretty much every format that e-books can come in. They do a pretty good job of idiot-proofing the machine. You can only download software / games / apps that THEY approve. (if you look around there is a setting that allows you to download anything you want, but you probably don't need to!) You have a considerable amount of memory to play with. You can probably have as many books on this thing with space left over.

The wifi is pretty fast and streaming youtube videos and Amazon Prime video are pretty seamless. I haven't tried anything like Hulu or Netflix, but I can't imagine those being worse. The rez is pretty high and the sound is shockingly good for small built in speakers. You can easily hook up pc speakers through the earphone jack if you need more volume.

Shopping on Amazon is even smoother especially when you get Amazon Prime. You buy it for a year, you get free shipping on Amazon orders, and tons of free content. Pretty sweet! 

Where the Kindle Fire lacks

While I can't say enough good things about the Kindle Fire I noticed there are several things that future versions will likely have. You know? Planned obsolescence. Also, when it came out, Android tablets were floundering. Now that people see what they can do, newer tablets have come out an surpassed the Kindle Fire. Some options to ponder...

Cam / Mic. Do you really need a camera or a mic on a tablet? No. However, you can see on the upper left hand corner what appears to be a camera. What it actually is, no one knows. There are no specs to let you know what it is. To me, this implies there WILL be a camera in that spot in a future release of the Kindle Fire. If you can take pics, why not go with sound? I have no doubt we'll see both sometime soon.

Memory card slot. Wouldn't it be great if you can have memory cars for games and other apps and NOT waste onboard memory on such things? While the Kindle Fire does come with quite a bit of memory, you can't use it anyway you like. They allocate a certain amount of space specifically for apps, books, and documents. You can't change that allocation. So wouldn't it be great is you can pop in a micro SD chip with a couple books or games on it? Then swap in one with your fav mp3s on it? All the current tablets have card slots, it's gotta be a feature on a future Kindle release as well.

Typing. It's still awkward and quite tiring to type something on this tablet. An external keyboard would be VERY handy!

In conclusion

It's been nearly a year since the Kindle Fire came out. It's great for what it does, but with technology always growing and improving I'm expecting to see great strides for this Christmas season. In fact, word has it that it might even be unveiled THIS WEEK! What will it have? My guess is that we'll see the following improvements: bigger hdd, cam(s), mic, higher rez, if wifi can get faster - it will, 3G or 4G, memory slot(s) possible for micro SD and/or USB flash memory, maybe a bigger (10") version, and the possibilities are endless. At this point, I still think it's the best bang for your buck. You can find it, of course, on AMAZON.

This week AMAZON will be having some big product announcements. We'll see what they have cooking for the Kindle Fire. I've heard that we can expect a LINE of these. A 10" version, tablets equipped with 4G. Who knows what else? Maybe all the short-comings I listed above, maybe?